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Monday, November 11, 2013

Recent Bits and pieces about Obamacare

Here are few items of possible interest regarding ACA, some fairly trivial,others more significant.

1. Bob Doherty of the ACP blog ACP Advocate takes the difficult-to-defend position that Obamacare is not paternalistic or maybe not at least part of it..See here. Let''s see- we have a law that forces folks to buy a product they may not want and fines them if they don't because it is really for their own good.What definition of paternalism does Mr. Doherty have in mind? He may have been better off to use the Seinfeld defense and say "not that there is anything wrong with it".

2.Does Obamacare violate the iron principle of politics? See here. That rule is: focus the benefits and diffuse the cost. In Obamacare we are now seeing focused costs, e.g on . those folks with insurance policies that are now being cancelled and have to pay more for policies that offer coverage they neither want nor need.'The poster child for this type thing is the widely circulated comment to the effect that I was in favor of Obamacare until I got the bill. The authors of the above referenced link wonder if the hubris level of the current administration is so high that they (he?) believed that they could violate that law with impunity.

3.John Goodman asks if the Obamacare bureaucracy become a virtual "deep state" See here. The term refers to the situation that once existed in Turkey in which army had become so powerful if was uncontrollable and unstoppable.Quoting Goodman:

The
healthcare bureaucracy’s status as a “deep state” is an important
factor explaining why ObamaCare is unfathomable. Politicians have little
control over this deep state, so they simply grant it more and more
power. Philip Klein of the American Spectatorwent through the law and counted over 700 stipulations which contained the term “the Secretary shall“, over 200 cases of “the Secretary may“, and 139 cases of “the Secretary determines.”
Of course, it is now clear that Secretary Sebelius did not make any
serious determinations. Rather, they have been made by many unidentified
career agents of healthcare’s deep state, who spend their days
responding to lobbyists’ “concerns” about this rule or that regulation,
while drafting thousands of pages of impenetrable regulatory guidance.
- See more at: http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-deep-state-in-american-health-care/#sthash.tSeR6xUi.dpuf

"The healthcare bureaucracy’s status as a “deep state” is an important factor explaining why ObamaCare is unfathomable. Politicians have little control over this deep state, so they simply grant it more and more power. Philip Klein of the American Spectator went through the law and counted over 700 stipulations which contained the term “the Secretary shall“, over 200 cases of “the Secretary may“, and 139 cases of “the Secretary determines.”

Of course, it is now clear that Secretary Sebelius did not make any serious determinations. Rather, they have been made by many unidentified career agents of healthcare’s deep state, who spend their days responding to lobbyists’ “concerns” about this rule or that regulation, while drafting thousands of pages of impenetrable regulatory guidance."

4.Does anyone know how many folks will ultimately loss their current health care coverage? If item 3 is true there may be no way to predict unless and until the controlling rules are made by some apparatchik within HHS.No one knows but here is one recent speculative analysis that projects losses much greater than those affecting holders of individual policies as it may impact holders of some employer plans.Projections are fragile because the Secretary of HHS ( or someone there ) may issue an exception to some and not others at any time.

-

The
healthcare bureaucracy’s status as a “deep state” is an important
factor explaining why ObamaCare is unfathomable. Politicians have little
control over this deep state, so they simply grant it more and more
power. Philip Klein of the American Spectatorwent through the law and counted over 700 stipulations which contained the term “the Secretary shall“, over 200 cases of “the Secretary may“, and 139 cases of “the Secretary determines.”
Of course, it is now clear that Secretary Sebelius did not make any
serious determinations. Rather, they have been made by many unidentified
career agents of healthcare’s deep state, who spend their days
responding to lobbyists’ “concerns” about this rule or that regulation,
while drafting thousands of pages of impenetrable regulatory guidance.
- See more at: http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-deep-state-in-american-health-care/#sthash.tSeR6xUi.dpuf

The
healthcare bureaucracy’s status as a “deep state” is an important
factor explaining why ObamaCare is unfathomable. Politicians have little
control over this deep state, so they simply grant it more and more
power. Philip Klein of the American Spectatorwent through the law and counted over 700 stipulations which contained the term “the Secretary shall“, over 200 cases of “the Secretary may“, and 139 cases of “the Secretary determines.”
Of course, it is now clear that Secretary Sebelius did not make any
serious determinations. Rather, they have been made by many unidentified
career agents of healthcare’s deep state, who spend their days
responding to lobbyists’ “concerns” about this rule or that regulation,
while drafting thousands of pages of impenetrable regulatory guidance.
- See more at: http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-deep-state-in-american-health-care/#sthash.tSeR6xUi.dpuf

The
healthcare bureaucracy’s status as a “deep state” is an important
factor explaining why ObamaCare is unfathomable. Politicians have little
control over this deep state, so they simply grant it more and more
power. Philip Klein of the American Spectatorwent through the law and counted over 700 stipulations which contained the term “the Secretary shall“, over 200 cases of “the Secretary may“, and 139 cases of “the Secretary determines.”
Of course, it is now clear that Secretary Sebelius did not make any
serious determinations. Rather, they have been made by many unidentified
career agents of healthcare’s deep state, who spend their days
responding to lobbyists’ “concerns” about this rule or that regulation,
while drafting thousands of pages of impenetrable regulatory guidance.
- See more at: http://healthblog.ncpa.org/the-deep-state-in-american-health-care/#sthash.tSeR6xUi.dpuf

1 comment:

Reading Doherty’s blog at the ACP site regarding “Obamacare” from debate to passage to now is like reading straight from DNC talking points. One wonders if the ACP is only for progressive, left-wing internists. And if so, why others would continue to pay their dues.